The British fort on the Maumee River

In the spring of 1794, the British built Fort Miami on the Maumee River in territory then designated by the federal government as the Northwest Territory. The fort was constructed to forestall a putative assault on Fort Detroit by the army of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne and to encourage Native American tribes in their war of resistance against American settlers. It was built as a log stockade with four bastions, each capable of mounting four cannon, along with a river battery, barracks, supply buildings, and a defensive ditch running 20 to 25 feet deep along the land side.

In July 1794, General Wayne and his troops marched northward toward Fort Miami from Fort Recovery. Just south of the fort, they encountered a barricade erected by Native Americans and a small party of Canadian militia. General Wayne ordered a charge and dispersed his adversaries in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The Native Americans fled toward Fort Miami, but its commander, Major William Campbell, refused to let them enter as he was unwilling to start a war with the United States. The tribes dispersed, and one year later, their elders gathered at Fort Greenville to negotiate with Wayne. The resulting Treaty of Greenville opened most of the present State of Ohio and part of Indiana to United States settlement.

In 1796, under the terms of the Jay Treaty, the British abandoned Fort Miami along with their other forts on American soil. Wayne occupied and garrisoned the fort, but it was abandoned again about 1799. The British occupied the site again during the War of 1812, where it served as a headquarters for Tecumseh and British officials against General William Henry Harrison at Fort Meigs. Abandoned again in 1814, the fort was eventually demolished. Today, the site sits as a small enclave within a residential development as part of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site. Ft. Miami Elementary School is located five blocks away from the site.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons